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Slovenia is likely to veto proposed new sanctions against Belarus at today's meeting of EU foreign ministers, Gazeta Wyborcza reports, citing unofficial sources in Brussels. The Warsaw daily ironically notes that the -
Slovenian veto strangely coincides with a recent major contract awarded to the Slovenian company Riko Group for the development of a luxury hotel in Minsk and energy facilities in Belarus.
Both contracts are worth some 150 million euros. On the Belarusian side, they have been signed by oligarch Yuri Chizh, considered President Alexander Lukashenko's "unofficial banker". He has long been expected to be put on the EU's black list of persona non grata, but each time the proposal was vetoed by one of the member states. Gazeta Wyborcza writes that -
Now Slovenia is prepared to ruin the EU's policy towards the Lukashenko regime for 150 million euros. The Minsk regime has to be delighted. And political prisoners have to understand that for the crisis-stricken Europe, business is more important than values and human rights.
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